Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2012 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 6 Articles
Social infrastructure projects (SIP), as the name implies, is defined as those buildings, structures and facilities specifically constructed to serve the community at large. The most apparent form of the social infrastructure projects are hospitals, schools and community facilities. Consequently, the nature of the infrastructure attracts less attention. In a sense, social infrastructure projects are one of the main criteria to enhance the economic productivity. This paper aims to contribute to this overlooked but important research line. There are two objectives of this paper. Semantically, this paper comprehensively reviews the social infrastructure literature from various aspects and applications. Then, it reviews nine journal papers and one conference paper in terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology. The preliminary finding reveals that ontological subjectivism, epistemological interpretivism, and qualitative analysis have dominated the social infrastructure domain. Last sections of this paper discuss the limitations and future research directions. The outcome can be used to improve general understanding of the social infrastructure projects....
This paper describes ongoing research investigating students'' conceptions of learning\nmarketing. This empirical study was conducted using a phenomenographic approach to analyze data from individual semi structured interviews with twenty-four Taiwanese\nuniversity students. The six categories of conceptions of learning marketing were identified, including learning marketing as ''memorizing,'' ''testing,'' ''applying,'' ''gaining higher status,'' ''understanding'' and ''seeing in a new way.'' In contrast with other learning domains, the results illustrate that ''applying'' was conceptualized as the major feature of learning marketing for all interviewed students. Moreover, most of the students consider ''applying'' and ''understanding'' to be closely related when learning marketing....
Environmental projects are large scale public sector projects which demand the participation of a number of public and private sector agents working harmoniously towards the public good. Public health and damaging environmental influences is a social problem that has attracted the attention of governments worldwide and has been seen as a stepping stone to sustainable development. In this paper we look at electromagnetic fields as health hazards and technologies that have been developed to solve these problems such as biogeometry and geographical information systems. Based on these technologies we suggest a framework for a project that that can be used to advance the research in transdisciplinary large scale projects related to public health. This framework is contributing to the knowledge of managing large scale e-government projects related to public health. Our ideas can be extended to other public sector projects as well as various geographical settings....
University tourism education is relatively a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe and its multi disciplinary nature poses challenges in the organization of the curriculum. Issues of imbalance, content/competencies developed, employability and the demands of various stakeholders provide a constant tension that has to be diffused through careful curriculum design and evaluation. A survey was conducted to examine the stakeholders� perceptions on structure, relevance, adequacy and balance of the courses, quality of lecture delivery and graduate employability. The results revealed that stakeholders had moderate perceptions on competencies developed by the degree programme. The study also identified some gaps in the curriculum that need to be addressed. These gaps could be filled by developing a graduate competency framework which can be used by all stakeholders. This framework could also help to reduce misconceptions about stakeholders� expectations and subsequently increase the chances of graduate employability....
The paper attempts to examine the influences on motivations for earnings management from the perspectives of workplace spirituality in Taiwan�s hospitality industry. The findings suggest that workplace spirituality is a new perception of individuals toward their lives and selves under the influence of the workplace. Such influence further affects the individuals on the acknowledgement of self-group relationships, and the actions of individuals. Therefore, spiritual awareness shows a\r\nmediating effect between organizational spirituality and earnings management. Moreover, the mediating effect is greater than the direct effect of organizational spirituality on the motivations of earnings management. In addition, this paper proves that there are no significant variances in the awareness of workplace spirituality among people who have different religious beliefs. Most literatures address earnings management from the perspectives of audits or business ethics, and suggest that moral education is the best way to cope with this issue. However, a sole reliance on the awaking and realization of the individual ethics may not be sufficient to amend current chaotic situations regarding earnings management. In fact, earnings management, in essence, is highly relevant to the opportunistic\r\nbehaviors of management....
The amount of research utilizing health information has increased dramatically over the last ten years. Many institutions have extensive biobank holdings collected over a number of years for clinical and teaching purposes, but are uncertain as to the proper circumstances in which to permit research uses of these samples. Research Ethics Boards (REBs) in Canada and elsewhere in the world are grappling with these issues, but lack clear guidance regarding their role in the creation of and access to registries and biobanks.\nChairs of 34 REBS and/or REB Administrators affiliated with Faculties of Medicine in Canadian universities were interviewed. Interviews consisted of structured questions dealing with diabetes-related scenarios, with open-ended responses and probing for rationales. The two scenarios involved the development of a diabetes registry using clinical encounter data across several physicians'' practices, and the addition of biological samples to the registry to create a biobank.\nThere was a wide range of responses given for the questions raised in the scenarios, indicating a lack of clarity about the role of REBs in registries and biobanks. With respect to the creation of a registry, a minority of sites felt that consent was not required for the information to be entered into the registry. Whether patient consent was required for information to be entered into the registry and the duration for which the consent would be operative differed across sites. With respect to the creation of a biobank linked to the registry, a majority of sites viewed biobank information as qualitatively different from other types of personal health information. All respondents agreed that patient consent was needed for blood samples to be placed in the biobank but the duration of consent again varied.\nParticipants were more attuned to issues surrounding biobanks as compared to registries and demonstrated a higher level of concern regarding biobanks. As registries and biobanks expand, there is a need for critical analysis of suitable roles for REBs and subsequent guidance on these topics. The authors conclude by recommending REB participation in the creation of registries and biobanks and the eventual drafting of comprehensive legislation....
Loading....